Stimulus or Welfare Bill?

We're heading back to square one....

The tons of pork in the Stimulus Bill are now starting to perfume the air with their stench, but a potentially even more egregious aspect of the Bill is it's reestablishment of unlimited life on welfare.  The Democrats have moved back to square one on creating the environment that could enable a multi-generational class of citizenry to once again become totally dependent on Government support - Welfare.

Benjamin Sasse and Kerry Weems report in today's Wall Street Journal that the liberating provision of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, signed into law by President Clinton, which eliminated the previous open-ended entitlement capability that had existed since 1965, by replacing it with a finite, block grant approach called the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.  TANF reduced welfare cases from 12.6 million in 1997 to fewer than five million in 2007.


As a result of TANF, welfare recipients are limited to a total of five years of federal benefits over a lifetime. They're also required to begin working after two years of government support. States are accountable for helping their needy citizens transition from handouts to self-sufficiency. Critically, the funds provided to states are fixed appropriations by the federal government.

"Through a little noticed provision of the stimulus package that has passed the House of Representatives, the bill creates a fund for TANF that is open-ended -- the same way Medicare and Social Security are.

In the section of the House bill dealing with cash assistance to low-income families, the authors inserted the bombshell phrase: "such sums as are necessary." This is a profound departure from the current statutory scheme, despite the fact that, in this particular bill, state TANF spending would be capped. The "such sums" appropriation language is deliberately obscure. It is a camel's nose provision intended to reverse Clinton-era legislation and create a new template for future TANF reauthorizations."

Although this language is not in the Senate version of the Bill passed yesterday, it may well be sneaked back into the final Bill.  The three Republicans who voted for the Bill yesterday, Susan Collins, Olympia Snow, and Arlen Spector, should watch for this provision's reinsertion in the final Bill.  If snuck back in, this may provide even them with a reason to vote no....Welfare reform was one of the most significant accomplishment of the 1990's, and the potential reestablishment of this "crack' for our citizens would be an outrage.

Obama's Mask is Off

Obama's thin veneer of cool is coming loose...

People are finally getting a glimpse at the real person behind the Obama mask of a cool, savvy and competent leader; now seeing the person who's spent  a majority of his life boppin' on the shady side of the street.....playing the hustle.  The charming smile disappears quickly when things don't go his way; the straight back and up-right posture slumps into the street slouch, game-face and diddy-bop walk of a hustler trying to intimidate the john's on the corner.  

We were warned that his associates were not upstanding; Rev. Wright; Bill Ayers; Tony Rezko; Acorn....his selections for his cabinet have continued to demonstrate not only poor choices, but his inability to react appropriately when they were exposed as cheats and liars.  Instead, he made excuses for inexcusable behavior, until forced to cut some lose.

The great orator suddenly loses his ability to bring forth uplifting rhetoric to a nation that's beset by anxiety.  Instead, he goes for the low road, like a shady life-insurance salesman predicting doom and disaster for your family unless the high-priced full-life annuity policy is purchased, in an attempt to sell the country on a mis-begotten and ugly spending bill solely primarily designed to pay off the Democrats' base and advance their Liberal social agenda.

When I was growing up in the Bronx, we had a name for things and situations that were so screwed up and messy like this Stimulus Bill.  We called them "blivits"...

What's a "blivit"?  A "blivit" is ten pounds of crap in a five pound bag....I'm sure you can visualize it.
Now it looks like we can start to call them.... "Obamas".

He'll get his bill passed, but if the Republicans are wise, they'll vote no, and stay clear of the splatter that will inevitably spew when this putrid "blivit" of a Bill hits his desk.